Greetings Susan,
For Stanford, I would add the following.
The Art & Architecture Library itself no longer subscribes to any auction catalogs, but we receive and keep approximately 300 catalogs a year from the Cantor Arts Center, Stanford's art museum, and via gifts. Also a considerable number of dealer catalogs. These all receive copy cataloging or original cataloging and are kept, but are housed in the Libraries' offsite storage facility.
As others have noted, online content is very, very spotty, so we feel we must keep physical copies for the time being.
Cheers all,
Peter Blank
On 6/17/2013 10:28 AM, Susan Ferrer-Vinent wrote:
Hello,
In answer to my question about how many of the auction catalogues are available on-line, I received very helpful responses.
Here is a summary of comments lifted from the messages, which came from Constance & George Fearing Library, Santa Barbara Museum of Art – Crocker Art Museum – Grolier Club of New York – Marquand Library of Art & Archaeology, Princeton University – National Gallery of Canada – Seattle Art Museum – University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. Thank you all so much !!!
· Not as many as you’d think. The big houses post their catalogues online but usually remove them once the sale is over and only the results are available.
· I do end up keeping all of my print versions because time and time again, we find the online equivalent is sub-par: missing information, no image, black and white image rather than color, etc. We don’t catalogue our auction catalogues – unless they have substantial essays. We do keep those un-catalogued ones (definitely in the thousands) in alpha order by house name, then date on shelves – many, many shelves.
· We absolutely HAD to get rid of all of our collection of auction and dealer catalogs. Sometimes online access to Sotheby’s & Christie’s has filled the bill. On occasion I have been told that they did not have the image of the object, or that some other information was lacking. Basically we are depending on the larger institutions to be the keeper of these catalogs. I might add that our collection was incomplete anyway.
· The auction houses sometimes let you search for granular sales transactions, which is wonderful (when it works) for values and multiplicity of works by a given artist. I go to the paper catalogues as historical artifacts documenting the sales events. Also for reproductions that may not be online. I've never had much luck using the online sources to replicate what I need/want from the paper catalogues. I grow fearful for the historical record. How long will commercial firms pay for online storage and maintenance of the thousands and thousands and ever-growing thousands of high resolution images that I want from the auction catalogues? Not to mention the text information. Is this access sustainable? I don't see that they get much commercial benefit from keeping the data up and the ephemeral interfaces operational forever, just to satisfy art historians. I'd anticipate a cutback in availability at some point.
· Major auction houses have incomplete availability online. Very uncomfortable with relying on online exclusively for provenance research. Might move print catalogs offsite, but would not dispose of them.
o No best-practices instituted by the various publishers
o No 3rd party online archiving systems established
o No assurance of the long-term accessibility
· It seems that, in some cases, even for chronologically proximate catalogs from the same house, it's a crap shoot--one catalog is easy find, the next or previous impossible or very difficult.
Once again, thank you,
Susan
From: ARLIS/NA List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Susan Ferrer-Vinent
Sent: Friday, June 14, 2013 9:04 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [ARLIS-L] Auction House catalogs online
Good morning ARLIS librarians,
I am hoping some of you will be willing to share your observations, research, and/or opinions about auction house catalogs. We currently hold catalogs from 36 different auction houses (from Aguttes through Wright). Some of them have runs starting a long way back.
Our chief curator asks: How many of the auction catalogues are available on-line?
I know that she underestimates the complexity of this question. I briefly looked at Sotheby’s and was confused by my findings. I’m hoping librarians with more knowledge and experience can suggest answers to her question.
Thank you very much,
Susan
Susan T. Ferrer-Vinent
Librarian
Denver Art Museum
100 W. 14th Avenue Parkway
Denver, CO 80204
Visit www.denverartmuseum.org and subscribe to our e-newsletter. The Denver Art Museum salutes the citizens of metro Denver for helping fund arts, culture and science through their support of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD).
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Peter P. Blank
Head Librarian
Art & Architecture Library
435 Lasuen Mall
102 Cummings Art Building
Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305 - 2018
[log in to unmask]
650.725.1038 Voice
650.725.0140 Fax
artlibrary.stanford.edu
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Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask]
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